Ukraine Opposition to March on Parliament After Merkel Talks (2)
Ukrainian opposition groups plan to
march on parliament to push lawmakers to curb President Viktor Yanukovych’s powers, risking renewed conflict with police even
as they offer some concessions to end three months of deadlock.
Arseniy Yatsenyuk, a lawmaker and former central banker,
told the tens of thousands of people gathered in Kyiv’s
Independence Square yesterday that the march will take place
after he and fellow opposition leader Vitali Klitschko return
from talks today with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin.
Earlier in the day, they agreed to cede control of five
government buildings, including Kyiv’s City Hall, prompting
prosecutors to drop charges against hundreds of demonstrators.
“Let’s form columns here at 8 a.m. on Tuesday and march to
parliament,” another lawmaker, Oleh Tyahnybok, who heads the
nationalist Svoboda party, yelled from the stage in the
Ukrainian capital. “We need you to press them.”
The 1 kilometer (0.6 mile) route runs through a 50-meter
buffer zone created after protesters barricaded themselves
inside a wider swathe of central Kyiv to decry Yanukovych’s
rejection in November of a free trade deal with the European
Union in exchange for $15 billion of loans and cheaper gas from
Russia. The conflict turned bloody on Jan. 22, when three
activists were killed. Candle-lit memorials mark the shootings.
Merkel Talks
“We saw the first steps toward each other, but there’s no
guarantee that tensions won’t rise anew,” Volodymyr Fesenko,
head of the Penta Political Analysis Center in Kyiv, said by
phone. “The march on parliament threatens to escalate the
conflict because the police will be there, too.”
Yatsenyuk, 39, said he’ll press Merkel for financial aid
from the EU to avert the country’s “bankruptcy,” as well as
for visa-free travel and a path to membership in the 28-nation
bloc. The meeting is scheduled for 4:30 p.m. in Berlin, followed
by a briefing to reporters at 6:15 p.m.
The conflict has hurt Ukraine’s bonds and helped push its
foreign-exchange reserves to a seven-year low. The yield on the
nation’s dollar debt due in June fell 238 basis points to 20.61
percent after rising 620 basis points last week to an all-time
high, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The hryvnia
weakened 0.8 percent to 8.855 per dollar at 2 p.m. local time,
extending this year’s loss to 7 percent.
“We need help, we do not need words,” Yatsenyuk told the
crowd. “We needs acts from our European partners. We will see
what political and economic package will be offered.”
‘Seize, Arm’
Yanukovych broke two weeks of silence late on Feb. 14 to
insist his opponents curb their demands, including his ouster.
“The calls to struggle without compromise, seize, arm —
are dangerous,” Yanukovych, 63, said in an interview broadcast
on state television.
The Russia-backed leader, whose victory in rigged elections
triggered the 2004 Orange Revolution, won a five-year term in
February 2010. That October, he won a Constitutional Court
challenge to Orange Revolution changes that strengthened the
premiership and weakened the presidency. In 2011, former Prime
Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, his opponent in the 2010 vote, was
convicted and sentenced to seven years in prison for abuse of
power — a case the EU has called politically motivated.
Now, in addition to Yanukovych’s removal, his opponents are
seeking to free Tymoshenko and to restore the 2004 version of
the constitution to give more power to the 450-seat parliament.
The president’s Party of Regions and its allies, the Communists,
hold a majority of 237 seats. Opposition parties have 167 seats,
with the rest belonging to independents.
No Premier
Yanukovych, who’s been without a permanent prime minister
since Mykola Azarov resigned on Jan. 28, will submit his
candidate for the post this week, Speaker Volodymyr Rybak told
reporters today, after meeting with the president. Yatsenyuk
rejected Yanukovych’s offer to become premier on Jan. 25.
Yesterday’s rally, like previous ones, included calls by
religious leaders for both sides to avoid violence. Scores of
volunteers spent the day cleaning up what still looks like a
cross between a refugee camp and a war zone, minus the weaponry.
They used bulldozers to clear Hrushevskogo Street of
burned-out vehicles and dismantled some barriers to allow enough
space for cars to enter one at a time. They also reconfigured
their defense lines and replaced stacks of now-melting ice with
sandbags.
“We have reformatted Independence Square,” said Stepan
Kubiv, the lawmaker in charge of protecting the camp. “Now
thousands of us will launch a peaceful offensive on parliament
to help lawmakers acknowledge their responsibilities.”
City Hall
The transfer of City Hall, about 100 meters down the street
at the edge of the encampment, proceeded without a clash, though
not without dissent.
Acting Mayor Volodymyr Makeyenko, appointed by Yanukovych,
had to pass through a narrow opening in a makeshift blockade
manned by uniform protesters to enter the building yesterday for
the first time since Dec. 1. The building is now guarded by a
handful of policemen, the only law-enforcement personnel
stationed within the opposition’s compound.
“Kyiv citizens and Ukrainians as a whole will give their
assessment of what happened here,” Makeyenko said in an
interview inside the entrance today, gesturing at the debris and
destruction left behind. The hallways were littered with broken
furniture, paper and gas masks. Coils of barbed wire clung to
the ceiling. “It’s too early to estimate the extent of the
damage,” Makeyenko said.
Land Cruisers
About 400 to 500 protesters and clerks were in City Hall at
any given time during the occupation, according to Oleksiy
Gladchenko, chief engineer at the company that maintains the
building and its communication system. Repairs will take at
least two months, Gladchenko said in an interview.
Directly in front of City Hall, several well-dressed
middle-aged men in suits stood next to three black and shiny
Toyota Land Cruisers, surveying the inside of the makeshift
compound. When a reporter approached to ask their identities and
purpose, they waved him away, got in their vehicles and sped
away through the new gate in the barricade down the street.
“I don’t know who these guys were,” said Oleksandr, a 22-year-old university student who’s been helping man the
barricades since Dec. 2. “Since we let the authorities retake
City Hall, we’re no longer allowed to prevent officials from
entering the barricaded section of the street,” Oleksandr said,
declining to give his last name for fear of reprisal.
‘We’ll Act’
Oleksandr said he’s unhappy with the deal his leaders made
to surrender buildings in exchange for freeing detained
activists and dropping charges against them.
“They seized our people like hostages, so we returned City
Hall and they let them go,” Oleksandr said. “They’ll take new
ones and then what are we supposed to surrender — Independence
Square?”
Oleksandr’s not the only unhappy camper.
Serhiy, a 23-year-old from the Lviv region bordering
Poland, said he and his comrades are tired of the opposition’s
demands not being met.
“We’re waiting for tomorrow,” Serhiy said, wearing
camouflage and a bulletproof vest adorned with a paper “self
defense” badge.
“If politicians don’t make a decision tomorrow, we the
people will,” Serhiy said. “We’ve had enough. We’re fighters.
We haven’t come here to listen to talks. If we decide to act,
we’ll act.”